The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may or may not constitute prior art.
Current motor vehicle automatic transmissions commonly include two or more planetary gear assemblies disposed in tandem and a plurality of clutches and brakes that selectively connect or ground various elements of the planetary gear assemblies to provide forward and reverse gears. The clutches are generally multiple plate friction packs actuated by a hydraulic piston.
While such clutch configurations have proved their worth, they do exhibit relatively significant spin (frictional) losses when disengaged due to their multiple interleaved plates, one set of which may be rotating while the other may be stationary.
In certain applications, accordingly, it may be appropriate to connect the transmission elements with other, lower loss clutch configurations. The present invention is so directed.